Something happened to me this evening that's never happened before. Remember, I have a dynamic broadband modem that issues me a new IP address within a huge range, every time I power up my modem.

When I opened Wikipedia tonight (not logged in under one of my 148 sockpuppets, just as the IP address), I was greeted with the yellow "You have new messages" headline.

When I clicked through to my IP talk page, the message read:



Now, I knew I had never vandalized the Anne Frank page (that would be so disrespectful)! And, looking at the specific contribution that triggered this February message, I definitely confirmed that it was not my work.

So, somewhere in the greater Philadelphia area, on an Internet service provider using bandwidth "in a very similar way", we have a non-Kohs vandal! Imagine that! It's kismet.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I view it as a good sign -- by signing into Wikipedia with a given IP address, you have a decent chance of bearing the legacy of a previous vandal. That's fantastic news.

Greg

The first time this happened to me, it raised my PQ (Paranoia Quotient) a couple dozen points, but it happens 2 or 3 times a week now when I click on a Wikipedia link without thinking to check whether it's black or red.

But I've mentioned this many times, and nobody seems get it. Yet another reason why all that baloney spouted by Wikipediots about CheckUser and SockPuppets is 97% lardass bull fat.

But who really cares? — Like most of the things they blather on about, Wikipediots are always 2 or 3 years behind the curve of What's↑ — Semi-Public Accounts are The New SPA today.

The New SPA will finally tank all their pretensions of knowing who did what and when.

Not that they won't keep pretending, but you know what I mean.

Jonny

That's what happen when registration or loging in is not a requirement to edit.

(joke reply): This confirms the fact that you are a Wikipedia Review holocaust denier.

(serious reply): This is the first time that ever happened to you? When I first started editing Wikipedia, before I had a real login, it happened to me all the time.

The weirdest thing is when it happens while I'm travelling, and I wind up in some hotel on a banned IP, that I cant even use with my real login.

I was just imagining somebody like JzG or Slimmy, holed up in some crummy hotel on a business trip to Boise or Des Moines, using the hotel's IP to make all of those "penis penis penis" posts that they'd been dying to make and couldn't...

I know of more than one open proxy that has been ticked off and even temporarily blocked for vandalism without anyone realising it's open. On the other hand, there are IPs blocked as open proxies that aren't, including an Internet cafe I've used.